Dems on defense in war over women

Democrats played defense Thursday, after an unforced error by veteran Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen criticizing stay-at-home mom Ann Romney allowed Republicans to turn the tables at a time when their likely standard-bearer is scrambling to close a massive gender gap.

Rosen eventually apologized, but not before Romney was handed a life preserver, if only a temporary one, on an issue related to women — a set of concerns that caused him to tack right in the hard-fought Republican primary.

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“I apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended,” Rosen said in a statement. “As a pundit, I know my words on CNN last night were poorly chosen.”

The flap also elevated one of Romney’s most powerful surrogates — his wife, Ann, who has been effective on the campaign trail and whom the campaign hopes to deploy even more powerfully in the general election.

The Rosen vs. Romney debate also demonstrated that the increasingly fierce war over women’s votes, while trending strongly in Democrats’ favor, will play out in a series of battles as the campaign heads into the November election. And Republicans might win a few.

At a minimum, Romney’s campaign was able to change the narrative for 24 hours and try to erode some of the large deficit it is facing against President Barack Obama with women voters. White House press secretary Jay Carney was peppered with questions about the flap at a news briefing. And it knocked Team Obama off message on the sixth anniversary of the signing of Romney’s Massachusetts health-care law, a date it had hoped to highlight to great effect.

It also prompted conservatives to rally behind an all-but-assured GOP nominee about whom they continue to have misgivings.

Nonetheless, while Rosen’s remark was careless — and, for many, condescending in tone and framework — it was yet another episode in a season of outrage, real or hyped, that has dominated this cycle. Rosen herself alluded to that in her statement, saying, “Let’s declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance.”

The flap began on CNN on Wednesday night, ricocheted across Twitter overnight and landed back on the cable networks Thursday morning with appearances by Rosen, who doubled down on her comments, and Ann Romney, who defended herself and said women’s choices need to be respected.

The Republican National Committee called on its Democratic counterparts to apologize for the comment, insisting Rosen is a Democratic National Committee adviser — a claim the party denied, although President Obama’s top advisers swiftly condemned the original remark. Yet a call by Obama campaign manager Jim Messina for Rosen to apologize only elevated the remark and guaranteed that it would stay in the news until she issued a mea culpa — which eventually came nearly 24 hours after the original comment.

The Romney campaign pressed hard on the issue, arranging a call with female surrogates on Wednesday morning ostensibly to discuss the Obama administration’s record on women but that opened immediately with criticisms of Rosen.